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February 12th 2006
National Indoor 4x4 Show, Donington Park.
  A quick trip out with the guys for a wander around the show, sponsored by Total Off Road, got us out of the house for a few hours. It wasn't all that hard to find the place (follow the convoy of Landies...), but I still managed to send us round to the secondary entrance by mistake (Doh!). Aside from this five-minute detour, we were soon at the exhibition centre. There were a pair of Foers Ibex parked near the entrance - a green early model, and a yellow later version. The latter was running a meaty set of Simex tyres to back up what looked like a very challenge-oriented spec. Mmm, nice. Occasionally I am reminded that, when one is no longer a child, it is time to put away childish things. And buy new, bigger, more expensive childish things.
  Speaking of Simexes, the 35-inch Fedima pictured was one of several copies of this successful tread pattern that were knocking around. Certainly far cheaper than the real thing, but are they as good? It'd be interesting to see a test comparing tarmac noise and wear rate, as well as the off-road performance, of the genuine article and the budget pretenders. Of course, when things get really squelchy, how about a set of crawler tracks? Looks like someone's trying to resurrect the old Cuthburtson Conversions caterpillar system, but I didn't get a chance to ask whether it was a one-off or a prototype for production.
  Bowler had brought along a couple of Dakar support trucks in addition to their racers, and other famous names were represented with Matt Lee's independent suspension comp-safari racer, and the kit-build frames for Tomcat's live-axle counterpart. At the budget end of the scale, NCF were displaying their new Vitara-based buggy, which looked like fun - kinda like the old VW-based dune buggies, but with four-wheel-drive.
  The show wasn't as big as I was hoping, and felt more like a specialist autojumble than a "show", but it was good for a wander around. If nothing else, I got to cuddle up to some spandex-clad booth babes (courtesy of Roadsure), and Will got a kick out of the fact that there's a Northamptonshire-based 4x4 specialist called Nene Overland (hardsuit not included...). I'll almost certainly go to next year's show, but hopefully then I'll have enough money to buy all the shiny bits I wanted!

January 1st 2006
Psssssss...
  Happy New Year to everyone! Great start to my 2006 - went out the other day, only to discover a nail sticking out of a decidedly squishy-looking rear tyre on the SJ, right near the edge of the tread (meaning a repair would've been dodgy). Bugger. It was around this point that I remembered that the spare had a bloody great gash in the sidewall, and was itself comically inept at holding pressure...

  So, a trip to the tyre fitters (Walkers on Melton Road, if you're interested) saw the SJ's rear axle sporting a new pair of Fulda Multitrac all-terrains (the undamaged rear tyre is now the spare - I don't like mixing tyres on an axle), and I was down £100. Well, such is life - but while I'm happier having replaced them (and now having an actual spare on the back), I'd still rather have not had to spend the money. Hopefully this counts as my dose of bad luck for the time being...

Archive of previous entries (2005)